Nekocon Report

The convention this year was really great. So lets dive in.

Day One pretty much started a day early. On Thursday my friend Tom and I went to the airport to pick-up Ron (aka Nekonny of the webcomic Caribbean Blue). So let me say right away that it was great to finally meet him. Ron is a great guy, very nice and friendly. It was a pleasure to have him around at the convention this year and as a roommate at the hotel. He and Tom also kicked my butt at Mario Kart DS every night of the convention (I couldn’t remember how to get the drift boost! It had been at least a year since I played it! *excuses*). I dropped Ron off at the hotel I work at where I had a room for him and Tom and I went back home to sleep. Friday morning we met up with Ron early to have breakfast and then it was off to the convention!

Back at the hotel we got settled in and realized if we left to go get dinner, someone would take our precious parking spot! We couldn’t let that happen (because we were parked so close to the door that leads right to the stairs that lead RIGHT to our room)! So we ordered Chinese! We visited and talked with our other friends that were there, Ernie and Amanda (Who btw draws absolutely cute things!) and some of their friends from college. It felt like a lot of what we talked about involved cartoons being remade but when I mentioned My Little Pony FiM everyone got really quiet. . . O_O, so instead we moved on to ThunderCats (which funny enough I have not seen…). With that we went

MLP:FiM is awesome…

back to our room and slept for a few hours- waking up in the middle of the night being unable to go back to sleep but trying anyways and as soon as I felt like I did- DAY TWO!

As usual, great breakfast at the hotel, omelets to die for (but i suggest not dying because then you can’t eat them). We headed back to the Artist Alley soon after to begin the long day. Ron seemed a little bored so he pulled out some extra cards he had printed (all with a bunch of different pictures from his gallery) and started cutting out the characters on them and turning them into little Popup cards! It was really neat and he kept doing more and more till the front of the table was covered with them. He even did it to one of my small prints and one of my cards. We met a lot of fans and new people that seemed interested in the comic. We had several people surprised to find out the other guy sitting next to Tom and I was Ron and that he was the creator and artist for Caribbean Blue and Ron was surprised to find out he had fans at the convention!

Ron was bored and started cutting… his business cards…

My “adventures” at the convention were more or less just having a great time talking with people at the table in Artist alley, but I do have a story for you all that has something to do with the little filler I did for Monday…

It all began with 2 cosplayers of Mario and Luigi… The majority of cosplayers at the con don’t really try to act as the character they are dressed as while just walking around, but these two did. These two, after preforming a little skit at a table near ours involving jumping over barrels, found themselves in front of my table and it went something like this.
*Both looking over the art* Mario – “Check’a out all the pretty a-princesses over here!”
Luigi – “Ah yes, we’sa know about how you like’a da catgirls.” *Mario turns quickly to his little brother with a scowl*
Mario – “WE’SA DON’T TALK ABOUT DAT LUIGI!” *Mario walks off with his brother Luigi following behind*

It was a funny bit that they couldn’t possibly had planned for and was pulled off without a hitch. We had a good laugh about it and before we knew it – It was time to pack up again.

My Table!

That night Ron, Tom and myself went out with Amanda, Ernie, and another friend David to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Our waitress was very nice and excited to hear we had come from the convention. She had been several times previously but not this year and hadn’t severed any of the tables so far with people from the convention. We chatted a bit and got into our dinners which were all fantastic (omg that steak… O_O*drool*). Most of us were stuffed, but David… David got desert… and Tom… Tom had a gift card he had to use so he got desert too. O_O Why would they make this? They took like- devil’s food cake batter, turned it into a waffle (A CHOCOLATE WAFFLE!), poured chocolate syrup on em, put vanilla ice cream on it, put chocolate flakes on that, and then Oreo crumbs o_o *Explode*

. . .

LAST DAY!

I don’t know what’s more shocking, that Spidey is fighting DC villians, or that Spidey looks like my friend Jake.

Sunday is usually a pretty quiet day, it’s the closing day, everything ends at 4, most pack up before then. Still we sold more items, talked with a lot more people, and nearly finished off all of the 500 business cards I had. My 3Ds had picked up a total of 88 unique Streetpass tags through the course of the convention. It was neat to see the Mii’s in the Mii Plaza to go from 2, to 90 just by sitting at the Artist Alley table, and they got me through the Find Mii mini game for a second time. Once it was over though we took Ron to one of my favorite restaurants for a late lunch/early dinner, Quaker Steak and Lube. We had a delicious meal and then went to waste some time before he had to go back to the airport. We went to one of the local Cards and Comics stores I frequent (same store- multiple locations). Chatted there for a while till they were closing up and left for the airport… A sad drive- but upon reaching it we realized- HE STILL HAS NEARLY 2 HOURS BEFORE HIS FLIGHT! So we parked in a parking lot that doesn’t charge for parking, and just talked for over an hour in the car. We dropped Ron off at the doors to the airport and said out goodbyes. It was great having you here Ron, and I hope we can do it again sometime (like next year or if not – the year after that at least since that will be the 10th year anniversary for Yosh)!

Thank’s again to everyone who donated to help make this trip possible once again this year.
Only a few of the images used here were taken by myself, most were taken by Ron, your friendly Neighborhood Spider-man (A friend of mine that goes by Jake), and some of his friends.